(Briançon, France > Aveiro, Portugal | 30 June 2025 – 29 July 2025) The End. It is liberating to start a story with ‘The End,’ to start the day after a bicycle voyage with a minute of motionlessness following a harmless fall, and to watch the world rush by from the window of a train…

(Day 26 – Santiago > Pontevedra – 25 July 2025 – 65 km, 1045 m) The distances are shorter, the mornings colder, my legs now well accustomed to the increased total altitude of each climb. So I start with a late and long breakfast after walking around the near abandoned twisted streets of yet another…

(Day 21 – Gijón > Serantes – 20 July 2025 – 142 km, 2165 m) “Are you having fun?” she asked.“No, but nothing has ever felt more necessary,” I replied.

(Days 19 & 20 – Gijón (Xixón) – 18 & 19 July 2025) Saudades. Yearning for, missing something I cannot quite put my finger on. Listening to classic Argentinian rock in an Argentinian vegan bar in Gijón, looking at the alfajores in the display, the little blue and white, sun-decorated flag in the sugar jar,…

(Day 17 – Mogro > Ribadesella – 16 July 2025 – 108 km, 1500 m) This was clear before I departed, but each day it becomes clearer: instancy is a stealthy trap, an almost imperceptible self-imposed prison, a hell I easily and often overlook on account of its ubiquity. The sun hitting the sea, the…

(Day 15 – Bilbao – 14 July 2025) I took 30 minutes to sit in front of a Rothko, untitled. People walked in and out of the foreground, some flashed pictures in a rush, a few took a minute or two to pause. Kids rushed past, unfazed. Adults rushed past, unfazed. A wiry old man…

(Day 12 – Pau > Bidart – 11 July 2025 – 130 km, 600 m) Today I donned a little red scarf with the Basque lauburu over my cycling jersey and stopped briefly to enjoy the first of two festivals along this journey. Reflections to follow in the post for Day 25.

(Day 11 – Rieulhès > Pau – 10 July 2025) It is a short cycling day, and my reflections are equally short. As I leave the haunted house just outside Lourdes, it is the first time I take notice of being along one of the pilgrimage routes, although most pilgrims passing through Pau are likely…

(Day 10 – St. Gaudens > Rieulhès – 9 July 2025 – 107 km, 1235 m) Today I dust off the people and places of childhood fairytales and adolescent fantasy books and movies and welcome them back in gorgeous living detail after years tucked away long-abandoned corners of the mind. I travel through two forests…

(Day 9 – Toulouse > St. Gaudens – 8 July 2025 – 110 km, 670 m) Full bike fit in Toulouse: talk, talk talk.Joined by a French biker friend for part of my trip: talk, talk, talk.Meals with BnB owner in St. Gaudens: talk, talk, talk. I ask about seat height, describe my hand muscle…